The power of collaboration gives Helsinki an extra shine

EUREKA Innovation Days & ITEA Event 2018

Pampered with a daily dose of almost 18 hours of sunlight, Helsinki at the end of May is a very generous place to be. But at the EUREKA Innovation Days, there was no time to bask in the sun. “Ten seconds to meet, greet and make contact!” This was the call issued to and taken up by all with great enthusiasm in the Finlandia Hall at the start of the EUREKA event from 22-24 May. An enjoyable way that moderator Charlotte Geerdink got the theme of the power of collaboration launched, reiterating the opening address of Heikki Uusi-Honko, EUREKA high-level group Chairman, who began the event with the anecdote that the venue had hosted the Helsinki treaty of 1975 when, in the middle of the Cold War, East and West sat at the same table. So it was also appropriate that it should afford the opportunity for South Korea to sign up as a partner country of EUREKA and for Canada to reaffirm its commitment to the EUREKA Network by signing the Canada-EUREKA Association renewal.

Smart insights and collaboration

With over 900 participants treated to an exhibition of projects, demonstrations of success stories, interactive panel discussions, keynote speeches and presentations of awards, Helsinki provided three days of ‘smart’ insights and trends in mobility, energy, health and industry coupled with the essential role of collaboration in getting innovation into people’s lives. And with delegations from Korea, Canada, Chile and South Africa with their booths, four continents were represented to give the event a really global feel, and once again underline how the ITEA Community is a veritable global village.

Corridor of innovation

Evidence of the prominent role of ITEA was underlined by the largest number of projects being exhibited, 37 in total, all ready and willing to share and collaborate – key ingredients in the DNA of this EUREKA Cluster. The guided tours along the collaborative ITEA project successes generated a vibrant buzz of expectation and reward, prompting lively engagement along this corridor of software innovation. Each project was a fascinating story in itself, stories that ranged from enabling more effective personalised healthcare to making real sense out of big data and from being able to slip securely and smoothly through passport control to preventing the malicious hackers doing harm in critical buildings like hospitals. In addition to the usual guided tours for Public Authorities and ITEA body members, for the first time ITEA organised tailored Innovation Discovery tours of the exhibition offering invited companies the opportunity to learn how the latest innovations coming from ITEA projects could solve their current challenges and to initiate partnerships in ITEA for the future.

Prize-winner

One of these projects, MEDIATE, received the 2018 EUREKA Innovation Award in the category ‘Innovations of Tomorrow’ from this year’s Millennium Technology Prize-winner, Finnish physicist Tuomo Suntola who had been rewarded for his innovative technology, atomic layer deposition (ALD), which has helped lay the technical foundations for smartphones and computers. The ITEA 2 MEDIATE project aimed at supporting healthcare professionals in the transition from invasive open surgery to minimally invasive, image-guided interventions. In accepting the award, project coordinator, Herman Stegehuis of Philips, expressed the power of collaboration by paying tribute to the whole team without whom the success would not have been possible. “Because there are many simultaneous changes in healthcare (clinically, technically, regulatory, financially) and clinical applications are diverse, no single company can cover all innovation aspects on its own.”

Better quality of life

Four parallel sessions on Day 2 saw the four key areas of Smart Health, Smart Industry, Smart Mobility and Smart Energy explored through presentations and interactive debates. While technological innovation was a central feature in all four sessions, the discussions moved beyond the actual technological innovations to the impact these have on our way of life. For instance, in her presentation in the Smart Mobility session, Dr. Maria Rimini-Döring, of Robert Bosch and a member of the ITEA Steering Group, considered what it is that we mean by ‘smart’, the common denominator of the four sessions. “We need to consider what meaningful mobility is when we develop our new smart mobility solutions and services. Smart and meaningful for what and for whom? The end user, the environment, manufacturers, business? And then there are the aspects of privacy, infrastructure, safety.” So not just the impact of technology on life but vice versa, the influence of life on the development of technology – a kind of symbiotic relationship. In the Smart Health session Caspar Garos of Philips referred to the higher purpose of ‘smart’, pointing out that “artificial intelligence and data science will become a key enabler for care everywhere” as the data explosion leads to more and greater opportunities to personalise healthcare on an industrial scale. He cited the ITEA MEDUSA project as heralding “the start of driving digital transformation in healthcare.” The message that rang loud and clear from the Smart sessions was that digitalisation and innovation both influence and are influenced by our lives, and hopefully for the better.

Innovation in a global environment

Zeynep Sarilar opened Day 3 as InterCluster spokesperson with the words: “EUREKA is the place for innovation in a global environment.” This event not only offered new insights into business and technology developments within the four ‘Smart’ domains but it also provided opportunities for networking and initiating or developing collaborative projects with companies and research organisations from Europe and beyond. During the plenary EUREKA Clusters session that followed, the Clusters underlined their roles in the innovation ecosystem in their own two-minute pitches to an inquisitive audience. ITEA Chairwoman Zeynep Sarılar referred to the high and growing participation of SMEs in many successful projects within the ITEA collaborative community. SMEs were also given an opportunity by Philippe Letellier (by lottery) to pitch their ideas to, and get feedback from, the Cluster representatives and find out how the different Clusters might serve as enablers. Furthermore, B2B matchmaking sessions each day proved a big draw to finding international collaboration for innovative ideas. This conference was all about demonstrating and not simply showcasing how collaboration has the power to make success happen.

Positive impact in a global market

Of course, during the ITEA Event 2018, ITEA made use of the occasion to celebrate its 20 years of successful innovation, and to this end participants were invited to gain an insider view on ITEA impact and participation from project leaders, ITEA body members and Public Authorities. This involved an interactive, audience-involving panel session with the four winners of the 2018 ITEA Awards of Excellence in which the project leaders from Airbus, Barco, IDEMIA and Philips shared their inspiring solutions for the challenges of collaborative city co-design (C³PO), safe and secure Building Management System (FUSE-IT), security of border management (IDEA4SWIFT) and minimally-invasive interventional treatments (BENEFIT). Finally, in a celebration of 20 years of ITEA, several representatives from industry and Public Authorities spoke about the impact of ITEA, its projects and their personal experiences in ITEA. It was only fitting that Zeynep should invite former ITEA Chairman, Rudolf Hagenmüller, “the father” back among his ‘family’ and friends, to kick off the retrospective.

Big ambitions for big challenges

“In terms of impact, I believe the real success of ITEA is that it has convinced businesses and industry that collaborative projects really can deliver business impact. And this business impact has to happen not in a far future but even during the lifetime of a project. Fast exploitation has been a major success of ITEA projects. And what I think ITEA has shown over the past 20 years is that ITEA projects are capable of addressing global challenges of the highest ambitions. I coined the term ‘seizing the high ground’ for this. I think of the global OEM that came with the challenge of a global standard for simulation for all OEMs. ITEA delivered. That’s what I mean by seizing the high ground. And we did so not by burning people out but by bringing happiness. On a personal note, ITEA was a high point where I was able to bring together all my experience together. And now, after my chairmanship, ITEA helps me to realise that my life has not been just a dream. It shows me that my life is real.”

A place to call home

Andy de Mets of Barco, a ‘veteran’ of the ITEA set-up for 20 years, paid tribute to the game-changing impact of ITEA on his company: “In 2001 a small consortium came together in ITEA to find out whether digital cinema had a future. Well, we created a complete new market. We are the world market leader today with over 50% of market share in digital cinema with over €300 m in sales revenue.” Mike Timmermans, project coordinator of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), said that the impact of ITEA for him was also very tangible. “With two of the projects we co-funded, MEDIATE and BENEFIT, winning awards I can return home a happy man,” and Jonas Bjarne of the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, considered ITEA a success not only in terms of project results but also on the human front, referring to “a family, the place I come home to.”

Brighter future

In her closing address, Zeynep Sarılar paid homage to the impact of ITEA’s past 20 years but also looked ahead to the next twenty, reiterating the power of collaboration. “We don’t know what to expect at this moment. The only thing that we can do is to continue to be curious, open to learn and be ready to adapt to the future. So let’s focus on innovative solutions to societal challenges, collaborate with each other and go to the global markets to create a positive impact. If you want to be a part of this future of ITEA, then join us in the next Call and through collaboration make the future much brighter for everyone.”

For all presentations and photo's:

https://itea3.org/itea-event-2018/index.html